Knowledge Centre - Case Study

Swale Heating installs and services central heating systems. Many of its customers pay for their service and maintenance contracts by Direct Debit. In the past, this meant considerable amounts of manual administration for Swale Heating's finance department. The company had Bacstel-IP software, but only submitted instructions to Bacs and didn't automate Direct Debit workflows. As a result, the team had to deal with Automated Direct Debit Amendment and Cancellation Services (ADDACS) reports manually from a spreadsheet. Kevin Thomas, Company Accountant at Swale Heating, says: "It used to take each member of the team two to three hours a month to amend customer details on our database and on the .csv files we submitted to Bacs. This increased the possibility of mistakes occurring between the two systems”.

Training holds the answer

Mr Thomas wanted to improve his knowledge of the Direct Debit scheme, so he attended Direct Debit Scheme Training for Service Users – a course run by global payments specialists Direct Debit Limited. Impressed by the course, Mr Thomas decided to find out how Direct Debit Limited's software could help him automate Direct Debit processes. Direct Debit Limited's PayCentre® platform automates processes and workflows for payments including Direct Debit, Direct Credit, credit and debit card, SEPA Direct Debit and Faster Payments. After a demonstration of PayCentre®, Mr Thomas was convinced that Swale Heating could collect payments more efficiently with the product. "We wanted more than just Bacstel-IP software. We wanted a system that would manage workflows for Direct Debit and PayCentre® does that from start to finish," says Mr Thomas.

Ensures compliance with scheme rules

Since it implemented PayCentre®,Swale Heating finds it easier to comply with the Direct Debit scheme rules. For example, PayCentre® receives exception reports, such as ADDACS reports, from Bacs, applies actions to payers and generates letters to notify payers of these actions. "We're more compliant now that we use PayCentre® because it sends out letters such as advance notices in accordance with the scheme rules. In addition, it also automates our exception-handling processes." By complying with the scheme rules, Swale Heating protects its service user status, improves relationships with customers and processes collections more efficiently.

Reduces errors and saves time

Swale Heating experiences fewer errors because PayCentre® performs modulus checks, which ensure that the finance team enters valid sort codes and account numbers. Moreover, the software deals with amended and cancelled instructions automatically, which ensures payer details are always up-to-date. Mr Thomas says: "There's no doubt that PayCentre® reduces errors and saves us time. It used to take half an hour to deal with each Bacs report and now it's done automatically."

Supports future business requirements

With an expanding customer base at Swale Heating, it's important that systems support progress rather than hinder it. PayCentre® manages large volumes of transactions effortlessly and it's easy to increase the number of payers in its database. Swale Heating can also consider other types of payment and additional security features because PayCentre® offers 12 modules that automate workflows and payments processes. Mr Thomas says: "We can add modules to meet the changing needs of our business. We may look at the Credit Card module next and if it works as well as the Direct Debit module, we'll be very happy."